QC student wins Recover Guyana’s Youth Environmental Speaker contest

Jun 06, 2023 News

Kaieteur News – A Queen’s College student has been named Guyana’s Youth Environmental Speaker.

Marian Academy and Skeldon Line Path Secondary School were runners-up in a spectacular show of intellect, courage, and earth-mindedness, on June 05, World Environment Day, organizers said in a press release.

Thirty schools participated in the final leg of the Shout Competition, on the quest to find Guyana’s next Youth Environmental Speaker. Shout, a collaborative effort between local NGO, Recover Guyana, and the Ministry of Education was launched in March 2023 and completed its first phase in April which saw over eighty-five schools submitting essays on what sustainable changes they would make to their environment if money was not an issue. Only thirty schools were allowed to move forward, after judging, to the next phase which was held Monday at the Ramada Princess Hotel.

The event was opened with organisers paying respects to the twenty children who lost their lives to the fire at the Mahdia Secondary Girls’ Dormitory; followed by an official “green” opening by Dr. Latoya Gooding, Vice-President of Recover Guyana. Without wasting a beat, the students were then allowed to take to the stage to deliver their prepared speech of about two minutes and after an hour of riveting and highly competitive speeches, the judges deliberated and decided on the top ten that would move immediately into the next segment.

These were: Zeeburg Secondary School, ISA Islamic School, Essequibo Islands Secondary School, Marian Academy, Skeldon Line Path Secondary School, Queen’s College, West Demerara Secondary School, Qayyim Academy, The New Guyana School, and President’s College. At the impromptu segment, the qualifying participants were asked to pick the name of a judge, who would then postulate a question that the student was required to ponder on initially for thirty seconds and expound on for the next two minutes. Tensions rose as name after name was called until the final name was announced, and that segment of the competition ended. Again, the judges quickly deliberated and the results were submitted for announcement of the winners.

Recognition was given to the top three essay submissions from Zeeburg Secondary School, West Demerara Secondary and Queen’s College, the latter of whom was awarded the prize for best essay. Additionally, the Best Speaker Award was copped by West Demerara Secondary School, Most Influential Speech Award by Qayyim Academy and the Environment Impact Speech Award by Queen’s College. All participants were awarded tokens and certificates while the top ten each went away with Environmental Recognition Awards.

Finally, the top three was announced; in third place was Saahil Hemraj from Skeldon Line Path Secondary School who received a prize package valued at $175,000 and included an environmental award, a tablet, one year free-fibre internet service from GTT, a health voucher from UltraCare Medical Centre Inc. and a cash prize. In second place was Aryanne Singh of Marian Academy who received a prize package valued at $250,000 and included an environmental award, a Chromebook, one year free fibre internet service from GTT, a health voucher from UltraCare Medical Centre Inc. and a cash prize and finally, the Guyana’s National Youth Environmental Speaker was announced as Vasanna Persaud of Queen’s College who received a prize package valued at $300,000 and an environmental aware, a laptop PC, one year free fibre internet from GTT, a health voucher from UltraCare Medical Centre Inc. and a cash prize. A check of $500,000 representative in value of a cash grant, training and technical expertise was also handed over to Queen’s College and they too will also receive one-year free fibre internet from GTT. Shout had a number of sponsors including: Ramada Georgetown Princess Hotel, Professional Print & Design, Camex Restaurants Inc., Ultra Care Medical Centre Inc., Caribbean Motor Spares, Guyoil, GTT, Guyana Premier Consultancy, Republic Bank (Guyana) Limited, Morning Glory, High Commission of India to Guyana.

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